The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 25, 2012
Filed:
Mar. 23, 2008
Heidi Daoxian Zhang, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Patrick Bernard Heffernan, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Heidi Daoxian Zhang, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Patrick Bernard Heffernan, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Three Palm Software, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for an image preprocessing device that automatically detects chestwall laterality; removes border artifacts; and segments breast tissue and pectoral muscle from digital mammograms. The algorithms in the preprocessing device utilize the computer cache, a vertical Sobel filter and a probabilistic Hough transform to detect curved edges. The preprocessing result, along with a pseudo-modality normalized image, can be used as input to a CAD (computer-aided detection) server or to a mammography image review workstation. In the case of workstation input, the preprocessing results improve the protocol for chestwall-to-chestwall image hanging, and support optimal image contrast display of each segmented region.